Advice re Baillie Gifford Fund in ISA

dunstonh

BG American is the highest risk US equity fund in OEIC/UT/ICVC form.   Its highly volatile and has a long history of boom periods and bust periods.  It make a good satellite fund but not a good core fund.  e.g. if you had an index tracker as your core US equity allocation you could have BG American as your satellite US equity allocation.   it does not make a good core allocation and certainly doesn't make a good single fund option.

The fund is currently doing what it has done before and will do again and again.   Nothing new here.

SevenUpPear8

EthicsGradient said:

The Baillie Gifford American OEIC is the equivalent of the closed-end investment trust Scottish Mortgage, which is managed by Baillie Gifford. Both had a wild ride up after the start of the pandemic, and then plummeted - and you had the misfortune to buy near the top. Here's a chart for the 2, with an S&P 500 tracker, and also AXA Framlington American Growth (which I owned until October 2023, when I switched it for an S&P 500 tracker, on the grounds that it is almost a closet tracker anyway, so I might as well get the lower annual charges of a true tracker).

If you set the timescale to start about 16/05/22 (just before Baillie Gifford Am bottomed out), you can see its performance since then has been comparable to the index. So there's nothing fundamentally bad about it at the moment; but it, like Scottish Mortgage (which I also have in my portfolio), is volatile. The managers try to pick big winners, and sometimes succeed, and sometimes fail.

If you want just one fund to buy and hold for the 20 years, then a global tracker like the ones you mention would give you more diversity, and thus a smoother ride. If you're going to add to it as well over the 20 years, then that smoother ride may not matter so much - you average out the peaks and troughs. But who can say which region will do best over 20 years? A global tracker gets you the average.

Small point of clarification: the Baillie Gifford American fund is the OEIC equivalent of the Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust (USA). The OEIC equivalent of Scottish Mortgage is the Baillie Gifford Long Term Global Growth fund.

The general strategy, however, is broadly the same - the difference being that USA/Baillie Gifford American are restricted geographically.

Eyeful

Have a look at these videos before deciding what to do with your BG fund.
            https://www.kroijer.com/

Considered a simple low cost All World Index or ETF tracker.
ETF examples such as VWRL or HMWO.